<scp>LGBTQ</scp>+ youth policy and mental health: Indirect effects through school experiences

The link between state policies and LGBTQ+ youth mental health is well-established, yet less well-understood are the mechanisms that drive these associations. We used a sample from the LGBTQ+ National Teen Survey (n = 8368) collected in 2022 to examine whether and to what degree LGBTQ+ inclusive school strategies, student perceptions of school safety, and experiences with bias-based bullying and peer victimization explain the association between state LGBTQ+ youth-focused policies and LGBTQ+ youth mental health symptomology. We observed significant indirect effects between policy and LGBTQ+ youth mental health through all four constructs, suggesting that each of these more proximal school experiences was independently implicated in this association. Findings underscore how state policies shape LGBTQ+ youth mental health symptomology via more proximal contexts and emphasize the importance of policy implementation following enactment.